How slow can the FDA possibly go in sounding the alarm about acetaminophen dangers?

As a “watchdog” the FDA is a lumbering, bloated, slow- moving dinosaur.

For instance, early this month the FDAnews Drug Daily Bulletin reported that the agency’s Acetaminophen Hepatotoxicity Working Group has produced a “background report” recommending that all drug products containing acetaminophen “carry much stronger warnings about liver toxicity and other dangers.”

Okay. Got the report in hand. Now what?

In two weeks, the group will present the report at a meeting of the “Drug Safety and Risk Management, Anesthetic and Life Support Drugs and Nonprescription Drugs advisory committees.”

So the report – already prepared – will sit in stacks for two more weeks. Then it will be presented to the committees. Then the committees will take a few weeks to ponder what is clearly stated above in a single sentence. And THEN…the committee will offer advice to the agency. And a few weeks later the agency will…what?…probably draw up a list of proposed guidelines. Then the list will…what?…maybe go back to the Working Group to prepare a draft? Then…oh sweet mercy NEVER MIND!

Don’t you just want to throttle these guys?

FDA, you go on ahead and do whatever you do in the mind- numbingly sluggish pace you do it in. Out here in the real world we’re already frying the fish you haven’t even caught yet.

If you’d like to get the full lowdown – right now! – about the dangers of acetaminophen, use this link to view a video I recently made: “When Over the Counter Turns Lethal.”

And please share this with your friends and family to help us get the word out. Because even though HSI members and the medical community have known about these dangers for many years, a large portion of the general public is still uninformed.

Source:
“Stronger Acetaminophen Warnings Recommended by FDA Group” FDAnews Drug Daily Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 106, 6/2/09, fdanews.com